34 School Buses Destroyed in Massive Waukesha Co. Fire

Even after a devastating Sunday afternoon fire at their garage in North Lake, Dousman Transportation Company will run school bus routes as normal Monday morning.

Arrowhead School District officials announced, despite the loss of 34 buses, the transportation company worked it out and would be able to secure replacement buses in the area by Monday morning pick-up times.

But the investigation into what started the massive fire continued Sunday night.

Authorities blocked all entrances to the garage where the 34 gutted buses still sit. None have been towed from the area.

Dozens of people took a half-mile walk on train tracks running parallel to the business to look the destruction. About two dozen fire department responded to the four-alarm fire. The first calls reporting heavy smoke came in just before 1 p.m.

"We were looking to the East and thought it was a storm cloud and figured out that something was majorly on fire," James Sarozek, who lives in the area, said.

"You could hear the booms as far as Stone Bank, people coming over. I mean, we were standing down by Funk Road and, I mean, you could feel the explosions on the cars. It was incredible," Sarozek said.

"People as far as Highway E were getting shrapnel on their car," Sarozek said.

John Muehl also saw the wreckage. He says he has been a driver with Dousman Transportation Company for 15 years. He thinks his bus is a total loss.

"It is in there. It was the fourth one from the South end on the East side of the terminal," Muehl said.

But like dozens of other drivers who came to the scene, he shares hope that the business will come back from this quickly. There are already plans to bring replacement buses into the area, Muehl said.

"Oh yeah, it's a tight-knit group. They help each other," Muehl said.

"The mechanics are so good. They had 'em all tuned up for Fall. So they were already running really good. So it was a great loss," Muehl said.